We spent our last week in Nepal in the hectic, lovely and bewildering capital city of Kathmandu, AKA Kathmanzoo. Here are a few parting shots...
Night-scape from our first hotel, smack in the middle of the tourist district of Thamel. We found that when getting swarmed by drug dealers offering "Ganja? Ganja?" the best response is "Crack? Crack? Brown Sugar?!!" and they walk away dejected. The whole place is an outdoor mall; we hated it, and soon moved to a quieter (and cheaper) neighbourhood.
Still-life with random traveller shit. Check out the little bottle of Alcohol Doctor: a vile hangover cure in a can.
Homeless men sleeping on the front of a temple at Durbar Square, Patan.
Bicycle rickshaws done up with flowers and mini-shrines.
Two foot long brass rat on a streetcorner in Patan. The rat accompanies Vishnu, and is therefore sacred.
Lady of Patan.
The block and brick suburbs of Kathmandu stretch out from the roof of our nice, quiet hotel.
Gold-plated carvings at the hilltop stuppa (Buddhist shrine) of Swayambanath.
'Tibetan' trinkets for sale in the tourist district of Thamel, likely manufactured in Singapore or Bangkok.
Stupa of Swayambanath.
A boy guards the deep-fried goodies.
Women line up for a fertility blessing at a Hindu temple in Patan.
This Nepali vendor walks the streets of the ancient administrative district of Patan selling cooking oil from gasoline containers.
The entire neighbourhood of Patan is sprinkled with beautifully carved wooden temples. It was once the seat of the Hindu monarchy that ruled a good chunk of the Himalaya until their overthrow by the Maoists a few years back.
A curbside statue in Patan. The dabs of colour are from morning offerings; some statues have seen so many years of worship their features have become blurred into a single mass of saffron and orange.
Who's that cutie sitting on the steps of the temple? (I mean the one in the
foreground, Stoltzy.)
A four centimeter tall copper Shiva lingam at Patan's museum. More than two thousand years old.
Night-scape from our first hotel, smack in the middle of the tourist district of Thamel. We found that when getting swarmed by drug dealers offering "Ganja? Ganja?" the best response is "Crack? Crack? Brown Sugar?!!" and they walk away dejected. The whole place is an outdoor mall; we hated it, and soon moved to a quieter (and cheaper) neighbourhood.
Still-life with random traveller shit. Check out the little bottle of Alcohol Doctor: a vile hangover cure in a can.
Homeless men sleeping on the front of a temple at Durbar Square, Patan.
Bicycle rickshaws done up with flowers and mini-shrines.
Two foot long brass rat on a streetcorner in Patan. The rat accompanies Vishnu, and is therefore sacred.
Lady of Patan.
The block and brick suburbs of Kathmandu stretch out from the roof of our nice, quiet hotel.
Gold-plated carvings at the hilltop stuppa (Buddhist shrine) of Swayambanath.
'Tibetan' trinkets for sale in the tourist district of Thamel, likely manufactured in Singapore or Bangkok.
Stupa of Swayambanath.
A boy guards the deep-fried goodies.
Women line up for a fertility blessing at a Hindu temple in Patan.
This Nepali vendor walks the streets of the ancient administrative district of Patan selling cooking oil from gasoline containers.
The entire neighbourhood of Patan is sprinkled with beautifully carved wooden temples. It was once the seat of the Hindu monarchy that ruled a good chunk of the Himalaya until their overthrow by the Maoists a few years back.
A curbside statue in Patan. The dabs of colour are from morning offerings; some statues have seen so many years of worship their features have become blurred into a single mass of saffron and orange.
Who's that cutie sitting on the steps of the temple? (I mean the one in the foreground, Stoltzy.)
A four centimeter tall copper Shiva lingam at Patan's museum. More than two thousand years old.
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